GC: Protestants First turn

[allan_boa]

Hey, I'm completely new at this. I just finished the tutorial.
I'm now playing the protestants in the grand campaign. What can I do during the first turn ?
My two armies are busy with siege of Plzen and Budweiss. I can't recruit new troops (no idea why?).
The only one thing I found to do was "mines" (only in one siege because I just have one card to play).
Anything else I can do or should I already press END TURN button ?
Thx

[Lynxyonok]

Winter is coming. I'd consider sending slower units (e.g., artillery) home. Or if you're feeling very lucky, order assault. Either way, waiting it out is not a great idea in the fall.

[bob.]

You should be able to siege down Pilsen. It's too far away for the Catholic player to realistically relieve. Budweiss is a lot more difficult to take because it is near Catholic cities and the Catholic army is a lot stronger, even before Tilly arrives with the Catholic League army.

In general in this game you should NOT expect to do something every turn. Especially during Winter there will be maybe sometimes even a half-year when you do literally nothing (except maybe play "convert" decisions). Don't forget that the game takes.... well... Thirty Years!

[allan_boa]

hummm ... interesting. Thanks.
Regarding the siege in Pilsen and Budweiss, the scenario description (if i remember well) says that it's important and urgent to take the 2 cities. So what you guys tell me is a bit contradictory even if it makes sense to avoid fighting/sieging during the winter ...

[allan_boa]

I've tried several more GC games playing protestants. But apart the fact that there are definitely not a lot of things to do in the first turns, I now systematically have this huge catholic army (600+) arriving near Budweiss. So I really don't know what to do? Should I really withdraw my army ? where to ? Prague ? What sens does it make (I mean why has this army been deployes in budweiss just before winter if it's not appropriate (according to the above comments)?
Thank you.

[Bengt]

You could whitdraw your army from Budwiss area to Prauge and let the enemy come to you.

[Philo32b]

I would recommend playing the Bohemian Revolt scenario, which is essentially just the beginning part of the GC, and then trying out several different strategies to see what works best. But as for specific advice, keep in mind that when you are entrenched (even though in this game you cannot entrench much), you can have a slightly smaller force successfully defend against a bigger force, especially if your commander has a better defense rating than the attacker's offense rating. But when you are sufficiently outnumbered by the enemy at Budweiss falling back so that you can consolidate your forces if you need to can be a good idea. If the Catholics don't advance, you might try sending a force to go east and at least scare the enemy into thinking you might march on Wien. Perhaps that might cause them to move away from Budweiss. As you probably already have seen, though, you don't want to be doing a siege when winter comes, as it will kill far more of your men than the enemy ever will.

The game instructions give good advice in general, but you always have to respond to the unpredictable variables that occur. It is important to have Prague, Plzen, and Budweiss because only if you have all three you will get tax money each turn (if I remember correctly). I'm not sure why the scenario starts with a siege in the Fall. Perhaps historically there were more political causes than military reasons behind it. Or perhaps historically the sieges started much earlier, but have lingered on into the Fall.

[H Gilmer3]

You should probably withdraw your army if you can't realistically defeat the HRE. Does it make sense to have been attacking? Probably not, but that was historically what they did, I'd imagine. The Protestant rebels were defeated historically.

[allan_boa]

Is it possible to start a GC as protestant but with all my troops in Prague ?

[Wallensteinwojtek]

I would like to ask if anyone stand against Catholic rush during first 3-4 years of Grand Campaign?
For me it is almost impossible to survive. Maybe versus computer, but definitely not against human.

[Konrad von Richtmark]

Playing as the Protestants, it's worth remembering that historically, they were indeed badly outmatched until Sweden entered the war, which only happened 12 years after it had started. The game reflects this. The Catholics just outnumber and outspend you, and start the game with the rockstar general Tilly, later joined by Wallenstein who not only has Tilly's skill level but also the ability to conjure mercenary doomstacks out of thin air.

You're in it for the long haul. Resist and counterattack when you can, don't feel bad about retreating or even just stalling, there's plenty more states lined up to join your side as the game progresses.

I'm currently playing a Protestant GC. When Tilly got besieging Prague, I had my main field army under Manstein in Pilsen. I was hoping the siege would drag on and Tilly end up being weakened by attrition so the field would be leveled a bit and I could counterattack. That didn't happen though, Prague fell, so I marched my army across Bavaria to Baden, which had recently joined the Protestant cause. Some time later when Tilly came for me my combined Badenian-Bohemian army managed to get him trapped inside a city he was taking shelter in (that lone Catholic city among the line of 4 cities in Baden on the western edge of Germany, don't remember the name), entrenching outside and repelling his breakout attempts and playing supply chicken with him until his stack surrendered. Vengeance is mine! I hope Tilly is now locked up in a tiny dungeon and won't be leading any more armies against me, but I'm not counting on it.